High Low Pattern Research Articles

Revealing the Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity of the Association between the Built Environment and Urban Vitality in Shenzhen

Sensing urban vitality is a useful method for understanding urban development. However, the spatio-temporal characteristics of the association between the built environment and urban vitality in Shenzhen, the youngest mega-city in China, have not yet been explored. In this paper, we examined the effects of built environment indicators on urban vitality by using spatial regression models and multi-source geospatial data. The main research findings were as follows. Firstly, urban vitality displayed a consistent high–low pattern during both weekdays and weekends. Differences in the distribution of urban vitality with time between weekdays and weekends were more significant. Secondly, the effects of various built environment indicators on urban vitality exhibited significant temporal disparities. Within a day, population density, building density, bus station density, and distance to metro stations all exhibited positive effects, while distance to the central business district (CBD) exhibited negative effects, with pronounced diurnal differences. Moreover, the effects of road network density and functional mix on urban vitality were both positive and negative throughout the day. Thirdly, besides population density and building density, road network density, functional mix, bus stop density, and distance from metro stations exhibited positive and negative disparities within the study area. Overall, distance to the CBD had a negative effect on urban vitality. This concludes that planning for urban vitality should consider the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of the association between the built environment and urban vitality.

Spatial autocorrelation and heterogenicity of demographic and healthcare factors in the five waves of COVID-19 epidemic in Thailand

A study of 2,569,617 Thailand citizens diagnosed with COVID-19 from January 2020 to March 2022 was conducted with the aim of identifying the spatial distribution pattern of incidence rate of COVID-19 during its five main waves in all 77 provinces of the country. Wave 4 had the highest incidence rate (9,007 cases per 100,000) followed by the Wave 5, with 8,460 cases per 100,000. We also determined the spatial autocorrelation between a set of five demographic and health care factors and the spread of the infection within the provinces using Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) and univariate and bivariate analysis with Moran's I. The spatial autocorrelation between the variables examined and the incidence rates was particularly strong during the waves 3-5. All findings confirmed the existence of spatial autocorrelation and heterogenicity of COVID-19 with the distribution of cases with respect to one or several of the five factors examined. The study identified significant spatial autocorrelation with regard to the COVID-19 incidence rate with these variables in all five waves. Depending on which province that was investigated, strong spatial autocorrelation of the High-High pattern was observed in 3 to 9 clusters and of the Low-Low pattern in 4 to 17 clusters, whereas negative spatial autocorrelation was observed in 1 to 9 clusters of the High-Low pattern and in 1 to 6 clusters of Low-High pattern. These spatial data should support stakeholders and policymakers in their efforts to prevent, control, monitor and evaluate the multidimensional determinants of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adherence to High Dietary Diversity and Incident Cognitive Impairment for the Oldest-Old: A Community-Based, Nationwide Cohort Study

Dietary diversity change is associated with cognitive function, however, whether the effect still exists among the oldest-old (80+) is unclear. Our aim was to examine the effect of dietary diversity changes on cognitive impairment for the oldest-old in a large prospective cohort. Within the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study, 6237 adults older than 80 years were included. The dietary diversity score (DDS) was assessed by a simplified food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Cognitive impairment was defined as a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score lower than 18 points. Cognitive decline was defined as a reduction of total MMSE score ≥3 points, and cognitive decline of different subdomains was defined as a reduction of ≥15% in the corresponding cognitive domain. The multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazard model evaluated the effects of DDS change on cognitive decline. The linear mixed-effect model was used to test subsequent changes in MMSE over the years. During 32,813 person-years of follow-up, 1829 participants developed cognitive impairment. Relative to the high-high DDS change pattern, participants in the low-low and high-low patterns were associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment with a hazard ratio (95% confidential interval, CI) of 1.43 (1.25, 1.63) and 1.44 (1.24, 1.67), and a faster decline in the MMSE score over the follow-up year. Participants with the low-high pattern had a similar incidence of cognitive impairment with HRs (95% CI) of 1.03 (0.88, 1.20). Compared with the stable DDS status group (-1-1), the risk of cognitive impairment was higher for those with large declines in DDS (≤-5) and the HR was 1.70 (95% CI: 1.44, 2.01). Even for people older than 80, dietary diversity change is a simple method to identify those who had a high risk of cognitive decline. Keeping high dietary diversity is beneficial for cognitive function and its subdomain even in the final phase of life, especially for females and the illiterate oldest-old.

An Analysis of Intonation Patterns of English Interrogative Sentences Produced by Undergraduate Students in District Mansehra

This research intends to discover the tonal configurations of English Interrogative sentences used by undergraduate students of English in District Mansehra. The intonation patterns of English interrogative sentences used by undergraduate students were compared with those of native speakers of English. An experimental design was used to collect data from a sample of eighteen students (nine female and nine male) in the form of recordings and was run on PRAAT software to identify the intonation configuration of the recorded utterances. The analysis showed that non-native speakers used a variety of intonation patterns in the utterances of English language. In the comparison with the results of utterances by native speakers, it was observed that in yes/no questions, there was a slight difference between the percentages. Contrastively, in wh-questions, a significant difference was observed, as native speakers used a High-Low pattern whereas non-native speakers used the opposite one.

Differential accumulation of cadmium in near-isogenic lines of durum wheat: no role for phytochelatins.

Certain cultivars of some crops, including durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), have a propensity to accumulate cadmium in the grain. In the 1980s, a Canadian wheat breeding program generated five pairs of near-isogenic lines of durum wheat that vary in cadmium-accumulation. Within each pair, one member accumulates twofold to threefold higher concentrations of cadmium in the shoot and grain. However, the physiological explanation for the high-low phenotype is unknown. We studied correlations between concentrations of cadmium and non-protein thiols, including phytochelatins, in these five pairs of near-isogenic lines to test the hypothesis that differential retention of cadmium-binding complexes in the root would explain the phenotype. The expected high-low pattern of cadmium accumulation was found in three of the pairs. In one pair, cadmium was positively correlated with cysteine and glutathione in the roots and with phytochelatins 2 and 4 in the shoots but in another pair cadmium was strongly negatively correlated with phytochelatins 2 and 4 in the shoots and unrelated to cysteine or glutathione. No correlations between concentrations of cadmium and the non-protein thiols were found in the third pair or in the remaining two pairs. The production of phytochelatins is a well-described response to cadmium but the lack of consistent correlation between cadmium and non-protein thiols in these five near-isogenic lines indicates that complexation with non-protein thiols does not explain differential translocation of cadmium in durum wheat.

Validation and intercomparison of HY-2A/MetOp-A/Oceansat-2 scatterometer wind products

Sea surface winds are of great significance in scientific research. In the last few years, three series of scatterometers were launched to measure these winds, including the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) aboard Meteorological Operational Satellite A (MetOp-A) and MetOp-B, Oceansat-2 Scatterometer (OSCAT), and HY-2A Scatterometer (HY-2A SCAT). Based on buoy wind data, validation and intercomparison of these scatterometers were performed. Scatterometer-derived wind and buoy wind data were collected only if the spatial difference was less than 0.1 degree and temporal difference less than 5 min. After discarding wind direction data outside five times the standard deviation, ASCAT wind products showed high accuracy in both wind speed and direction, with root-mean-square error (RMSE) 0.86 m/s and 17.97 degrees, respectively. HY-2A SCAT nearly meets the mission requirement, with RMSE for wind speed 1.23 m/s and 22.85 degrees for wind direction. OSCAT had poor performance when compared with the others. RMSE for wind speed was 1.54 m/s and 39.86 degrees for wind direction, which greatly exceeds the mission requirement of 20 degrees. In addition, the RMSE for wind direction shows a high-low pattern on buoy wind speed. However, a wind speed range from 14 to 15 m/s was found to be abnormal, and the reason remains unclear. There was no systematic dependency of both wind speed and direction residuals on buoy wind speed and cross-track location of the wind vector cells across the entire range. No seasonal variation was found for any scatterometer.

Effects of carbon emission transfer on economic spillover and carbon emission reduction in China

Accurately understanding the spatial features of regional carbon emission transfer and clearly identifying economic spillover effects and emission reduction effects are important in guiding reasonable regional carbon emission transfer and promoting sustainable regional economic development. This study firstly calculated China's total provincial carbon emission import and export. Then, the Moran's I index and a geographical weighted regression model were used to illustrate the spatial features of provincial carbon emission transfer and its economic spillover effects. Finally, the reduction effects of provincial carbon emission were analyzed and optimization strategies of carbon emission transfer structure for China's provinces were proposed. The results show that: 1) The transfer amount of carbon emission in most provinces is relatively large, and on the whole, the carbon emission import is higher than the export. 2) Spatial cluster is a characteristic of the provincial carbon emission transfer in China, and the Moran's I index of carbon emission import and export is 0.17 and 0.14, respectively. 3) The carbon emission transfer in the developed central and eastern regions of China displays a High–High pattern; but a Low–Low pattern is displayed in the underdeveloped central and western regions; for the central regions, the transfer displayed mainly a Low-High or High-Low pattern. 4) The economic spillover effects of the carbon emission transfer can be classified into five different types. Generally, the economic spillover effects of the carbon emission import are greater than that of the export. 5) Carbon emission transfer can reduce the coal consumption in 18 provinces and help those provinces continue to maintain cleaner production modes.

An algorithm for clustering tendency assessment

The visual assessment of tendency (VAT) technique, developed by J.C. Bezdek, R.J. Hathaway and J.M. Huband, uses a visual approach to find the number of clusters in data. In this paper, we develop a new algorithm that processes the numeric output of VAT programs, other than gray level images as in VAT, and produces the tendency curves. Possible cluster borders will be seen as high-low patterns on the curves, which can be caught not only by human eyes but also by the computer. Our numerical results are very promising. The program caught cluster structures even in cases where the visual outputs of VAT are virtually useless.

The Dynamics of Locational Patterns of Brazilian Manufacturing industry in 2012

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the spatial distribution of the Krugman’s specialization index and Gini’s concentration index in relation to the sectors of manufacturing industry, of the 558 Brazilian’s micro-regions in the year of 2010. The used variable consists in the use of formal divisions that compounds the manufacturing industry. In order to detect the spatial patterns of indicators of interest behavior, corroborating, or not with the influence of the environment and space on them, spatial econometrics has been applied. The values of the global Moran's I of the two indexes imply the rejection of the null hypothesis of absence of spatial autocorrelation. Thus, there are also clusters of well-defined High-High and Low-Low patterns, and a lower number of High-Low and High-Low patterns. The obtained results allow the identification of micro-regions that showed a highly specialized productive structure and others with a high degree of diversification.

DETECTION OF HIGH-DEGREE PROGRADE SECTORAL MODE SEQUENCES IN THE A-STAR KIC 8054146?

This paper examines the 46 frequencies found in the Delta Sct star KIC 8054146 involving a frequency spacing of exactly 2.814 c/d (32.57 microHz), which is also a dominant low-frequency peak near or equal to the rotational frequency. These 46 frequencies range up to 146 c/d. Three years of Kepler data reveal distinct sequences of these equidistantly spaced frequencies, including the basic sequence and side lobes associated with other dominant modes (i.e., small amplitude modulations). The amplitudes of the basic sequence show a high-low pattern. The basic sequence follows the equation fm = 2.8519 + m * 2.81421 c/d with m ranging from 25 to 35. The zero-point offset and the lack of low-order harmonics eliminate an interpretation in terms of a Fourier series of a non-sinusoidal light curve. The exactness of the spacing eliminates high-order asymptotic pulsation. The frequency pattern is not compatible with simple hypotheses involving single or multiple spots, even with differential rotation. The basic high-frequency sequence is interpreted in terms of prograde sectoral modes. These can be marginally unstable, while their corresponding low-degree counterparts are stable due to stronger damping. The measured projected rotation velocity (300 km/s) indicates that the star rotates with app. 70% of the Keplerian break-up velocity. This suggests a near equator-on view. We qualitatively examine the visibility of prograde sectoral high-degree g-modes in integrated photometric light in such a geometrical configuration and find that prograde sectoral modes can reproduce the frequencies and the odd-even amplitude pattern of the high-frequency sequence.

A Time-Series Analysis of Landscape Structural Changes using the Spatial Autocorrelation Method - Focusing on Namyangju Area -

In order to determine temporal changes of the urban landscape, interdependence and interaction among geo-spatial objects can be analyzed using GIS analytic methods. In this study, to investigate changes in the landscape structure of the Namyangju area, the size and shape of landscape patches, and the distance between the patches were analyzed with the Spatial Autocorrelation Method. In addition, both global and local spatial autocorrelation analyses were conducted. The results of global Moran's I revealed that both patch size and shape index transformed to a more dispersed pattern over time. Next, the local Moran's I of patch size in all time series determined that almost all patches were of a high-low pattern. Meanwhile, the local Moran's I of the shape index was found to have changed from a high-high pattern to a high-low pattern in time series. Finally, as time passes, the number of hot spot patches about size and shape index had been decreased according to the results of hot spot analysis. These changes appeared around the development projects in the study area. From the results of this study, degradation of landscape patches in Namyangju were ascertained and their specific areas were delineated. Such results can be used as useful data in selecting areas for conservation and for preparing plans and strategies in environmental restoration.

Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography in patients with Moyamoya disease

This study included 17 patients (five men and 12 women) with clinical diagnosis of Moyamoya disease from conventional angiograms. Bilateral basal arteries were measured by the transtemporal approach with a 2 MHz pulsed Doppler instrument (TC-2 64B EME). In 28 out of the 34 basal arteries (82.4%), reliable recordings were obtained. These transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) findings were classified into three patterns: (1) High-high pattern; the mean cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) was increased throughout the basal arteries by over 70 cm/s (seven arteries, 25.0%); (2) high-low pattern; the mean CBFV was fastest (over 70 cm/s) at the ICA or proximal MCA and the mean CBFV decreased remarkably distally (15 arteries, 53.6%); and (3) low-low pattern; the mean CBFV was less than 40 cm/s throughout the basal arteries (arteries, 15.4%). These CBFV patterns as assessed by TCD are compared with the patients age, clinical symptoms and angiographical stagings (Suzuki's criteria). The high-high pattern on TCD was predominantly seen in the younger patients and in the earlier stages of the disease. The high-low pattern was the most common pattern of CBFV as assessed by TCD in Moyamoya patients. The low-low pattern on TCD was more common in the later stages following angiographic evaluation by Suzuki's criteria. The above patterns based on TCD findings show a good correlation with the age of the patient and the clinical diagnosis at the onset. TCD appears to be very useful in the evaluation of patients with Moyamoya disease.

モヤモヤ病のＴｒａｎｓｃｒａｎｉａｌ Ｄｏｐｐｌｅｒによる脳血流速度分類

This study included 17 patients (5 men and 12 women) with a clinical diagnosis of moyamoya disease from conventional angiograms. Bilateral basal arteries were measured by the transtemporal approach with a 2-MHz pulsed Doppler instrument (TC-2 64B, EME) . Reliable TCD recordings were obtained in 28 out of 34 basal arteries (82.4%) . These TCD findings were classified into three patterns : 1) high-high pattern; the mean cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) was increased throughout the basal arteries by over 70 cm/s (7 arteries, 25.0%), 2) high-low pattern ; the mean CBFV was fastest (over 70 cm/s) at the ICA or proximal MCA, and the mean CBFV was markedly decreased distally (15 arteries, 53.6%), and 3) low-low pattern; the mean CBFV was less than 40 cm/s throughout the basal arteries (4 arteries, 15.4%) . The high-high pattern on TCD was seen predominantly in younger patients and those in the earlier stages of the disease. The high-low pattern was the most common one of CBFV as assessed by TCD in moyamoya patients. The low-low pattern on TCD was more common in the later stages following angiographic evaluation by Suzuki's criteria.The above patterns based on TCD findings show good correlation with the age of the patient and the clinical diagnosis at onset. TCD appears to be very useful for evaluation of patients with moyamoya disease.

Effect of type and pattern of feeding in pregnancy on sow and litter performance

Abstract The growth and litter performance of 60 Large White x Berkshire sows mated to Large White boars were measured over four reproductive cycles. At first mating, animals were allocated to four dietary treatments according to mating weight and ultrasonically determined backfat cover. A high-low feeding pattern during pregnancy was compared with a low-high pattern of meal intake, and grazing treatments with either high or low levels of a high-protein meal supplement. From Parity 2, sows on the low-high all-meal feeding pattern were changed to grazing with barley meal and vitamin and mineral supplements. In Parity I, gilts on the low-high all-meal feeding pattern gained rnore net weight in pregnancy, lost more weight in lactation. and weaned heavier litters, after adjustment for variation in litter size. than control gilts on the high-low pattern. Litters from sows on the grazing treatments, fed the higher protein meal supplement, were lighter at birth and weaning than litters from sows on the high-low meal feeding. The use of a cereal meal and mineral supplement for grazing sows appeared to result in a relative decline in birth weights throughout the trial. Numbers of piglets born per litter were not influenced by any dietary treatment. Reserves of physical and chemical fat, as estimated from ultrasonically measured backfat depths, decreased in Parities I and 2, but remained static thereafter. A straight line fitted to means showed that apparent digestible energy (ADE) intake accounted for most of the variation in mean net sow gains in Parity 1 (r2 = 0.93). This finding is discussed in relation to optimal net gains in pregnancy and currently available feeding standards.

Performance and carcase characteristics of pigs grown along three growth curves to bacon weight

Using low, medium, and high feeding levels, three growth patterns were designed to produce pigs of 160 lb liveweight at about the same age. Daily liveweight gains closely followed level of feeding. Pigs on the low feeding level required more feed per pound of liveweight gain than those fed at higher levels. The overall feed efficiency of pigs fed a high-low pattern was less than that of pigs fed medium-medium or low-high patterns. Although the low-high pigs had significantly more (P<0.05) fat than pigs on the other treatments, mean carcase characteristics on all treatments generally fulfilled the requirements of a local premium grade. There were no treatment effects on the weights of shoulders, middles, and hams, nor was there any evidence that treatments had affected the distribution of muscle and fat within the side. When carcases were adjusted for weight of bone plus muscle in the side, there were no treatment effects on weights of tissues nor on the distribution of bone plus muscle in the shoulder, middle, and ham. The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to feeding standards and theories on pig growth and development.