Large-scale Systematic Study Research Articles

Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – XV. Properties of ionized outflows

ABSTRACT Powerful outflows are thought to play a critical role in galaxy evolution and black hole growth. We present the first large-scale systematic study of ionized outflows in paired galaxies and post-mergers compared to a robust control sample of isolated galaxies. We isolate the impact of the merger environment to determine if outflow properties depend on merger stage. Our sample contains ∼4000 paired galaxies and ∼250 post-mergers in the local universe (0.02 ≤ z ≤ 0.2) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR 7) matched in stellar mass, redshift, local density of galaxies, and [O iii] λ5007 luminosity to a control sample of isolated galaxies. By fitting the [O iii] λ5007 line, we find ionized outflows in ∼15 per cent of our entire sample. Outflows are much rarer in star-forming galaxies compared to active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and outflow incidence and velocity increase with [O iii] λ5007 luminosity. Outflow incidence is significantly elevated in the optical + mid-infrared selected AGN compared to purely optical AGN; over 60 per cent show outflows at the highest luminosities ($L_{\mathrm{[OIII]~\lambda 5007}}\, \gtrsim$ 1042 erg s−1), suggesting mid-infrared AGN selection favours galaxies with powerful outflows, at least for higher [O iii] λ5007 luminosities. However, we find no statistically significant difference in outflow incidence, velocity, and luminosity in mergers compared to isolated galaxies, and there is no dependence on merger stage. Therefore, while interactions are predicted to drive gas inflows and subsequently trigger nuclear star formation and accretion activity, when the power source of the outflow is controlled for, the merging environment has no further impact on the large-scale ionized outflows as traced by [O iii] λ5007.

Early Rehabilitation

Bed rest after brain injury may result in disuse syndrome, making it difficult for the patient to reintegrate into society. Early mobilization and exercise intervention are important for preventing disuse syndrome and promoting early improvement of activities of daily living. However, there are problems with controlling the intracranial pressure and cerebral perfusion pressure after severe traumatic brain injury. Recently, the effect of rehabilitation for acute brain injury has been reported. Rehabilitation is a therapeutic approach to assist patients with disabilities in maintaining, improving, and regaining optimal functioning within their environments. In acute head injury cases, pulmonary rehabilitation and dysphagia rehabilitation are important in addition to exercise therapy. Although the evidence is not yet well established, it is important to provide early multidisciplinary rehabilitation to patients with traumatic brain injuries regularly. Moreover, rehabilitation needs to be conducted safely with adequate risk management. In the future, it is necessary to conduct a large-scale systematic cohort study on early rehabilitation to examine patient strength and the optimal time to begin exercising.

Female behaviour is differentially associated with specific components of multimodal courtship in ring doves

Courtship displays are typically conspicuous, elaborate and composed of concomitant signals occurring in different sensory modalities. Although multimodal signals have received increasing attention over the past years, technical issues, in particular the lack of appropriate recording and analytical methods, have long restricted large-scale systematic study of their function. Here, we investigated in detail in 100 male–female dyads whether the multimodal, audiovisual courtship signals of the male ring dove, Streptopelia risoria, are associated with different immediate behavioural responses by the female, and whether such responses depend on the courting individual. We used synchronized high-speed video and audio recordings followed by semiautomatic image- and audio-processing techniques to precisely quantify variation in male courtship and female response. In particular, we investigated the structure of acoustic and visual courtship components, as well as aspects related to multimodal synchronization. We found that the fundamental frequency of male calls, as well as the total courtship duration and the duration of courtship bouts, influenced female tail-quivering behaviour, confirming that this behaviour is a sign of sexual interest in doves. On the other hand, some courtship variables frequently investigated in the literature, such as courtship rate, did not affect any aspect of female response. Additionally, we demonstrated an effect of repeated encounters with an individual of the opposite sex both on male courtship variables and on female sexual response to courtship. Females also responded differently to different males, that is, we found variation in female behavioural response to courtship variables related to identity and courtship effort. Further empirical studies are needed to assess how different male courtship elements influence female behaviour and ultimate mating decisions.

Twitter during COVID-19: George Floyd Opening a Space to Address Systematic and Institutionalized Racism?

Purpose: Racism was a high-profile issue during the COVID-19 pandemic even before the killing of George Floyd and international Black Lives Matter protests and reactions. This article investigates early English-language COVID-19-related discussions of racism on Twitter to assess whether they affected the strength of the George Floyd protests.Design/methodology/approach: Tweets mentioning COVID-19 were gathered from 10 March to 5 June 2020 and investigated with time series graphs and word association thematic analysis.Findings: There were four main phases of racism discussions: right wing “Chinese virus” comments; Donald Trump’s “Chinese virus” comments; discussions of high ethnic minority COVID-19 death rates; and reactions to the George Floyd killing. Tweets about the first three issues increased at the start of the George Floyd protests, suggesting that they fed into them. Despite the huge increase in tweeting about racism after George Floyd, only 12% of tweets mentioned him or Black Lives Matter, with the remainder often making more general anti-racism statements. Thus, the killing of George Floyd seems to have opened a large scale social media space for public generalizations about systematic and institutionalized racism.Originality: This is the first large-scale systematic study of the evolution of discussions of racism on Twitter during COVID-19.

A Large-Scale Empirical Study on the Vulnerability of Deployed IoT Devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become ubiquitous and greatly affected peoples’ daily lives. With the increasing development of IoT devices, the corresponding security issues are becoming more and more challenging. Such a severe security situation raises the following questions that need urgent attention: What are the primary security threats that IoT devices face currently? How do vendors and users deal with these threats? In this article, we aim to answer these critical questions through a large-scale systematic study. Specifically, we perform a ten-month-long empirical study on the vulnerability of 1,362,906 IoT devices varying from six types. The results show sufficient evidence that N-days vulnerability is seriously endangering the IoT devices: 385,060 (28.25 percent) devices suffer from at least one N-days vulnerability. Moreover, 2669 of these vulnerable devices may have been compromised by botnets. We further reveal the massive differences among five popular IoT search engines: <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Shodan</i> [1], <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Censys</i> [2], [3], <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Zoomeye</i> [4], <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Fofa</i> [5], and <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">NTI</i> [6]. To study whether vendors and users adopt defenses against the threats, we measure the security of MQTT [7] servers, and identify that 12740 (88 percent) MQTT servers have no password protection. Our analysis can serve as an important guideline for investigating the security of IoT devices, as well as advancing the development of a more secure environment for IoT systems.

Anatomical Variation of Human Bone Bioapatite Crystallography and Comparison to Hydroxyapatite

This systematic investigation of bioapatite, the mineral component of human bone, aims to characterize its crystallographic state, including lattice parameters and average crystallite size, and correlate these values with respect to anatomical position (bone function), physicality, and age. In bone sample sets from three different human adults, anatomical variation of crystallographic lattice parameters and average crystallite size were observed.In general, the observed bioapatite lattice parameters among all analyzed human bones in this study are larger compared to those of stoichiometric hydroxyapatite (HAP) lattice parameters. Across all analyzed samples, the relative standard deviation of the mean a(=b) cell lattice parameter (unit cell edge-length) varies more (0.032%) than it does for the c lattice parameter (0.018%). Average crystallite size (average coherent diffracting domain size) in the c-direction was equal to approximately 25 nm, ranging among the analyzed 18 bone samples from about 20-32 nm, varying more than crystallite size in the a,b-direction (~8-10 nm). Neither lattice parameters nor average bioapatite crystallite sizes appeared to be correlated with bone function and the associated mechanical stresses but may be correlated to age. The results of this study prompt the need for large-scale systematic study of human bone mineral structure with consideration of different influencing bone traits, including but not limited to anatomical position, individual physical constitution, and age.

Identification of highly conserved, serotype-specific dengue virus sequences: implications for vaccine design

BackgroundThe sequence diversity of dengue virus (DENV) is one of the challenges in developing an effective vaccine against the virus. Highly conserved, serotype-specific (HCSS), immune-relevant DENV sequences are attractive candidates for vaccine design, and represent an alternative to the approach of selecting pan-DENV conserved sequences. The former aims to limit the number of possible cross-reactive epitope variants in the population, while the latter aims to limit the cross-reactivity between the serotypes to favour a serotype-specific response. Herein, we performed a large-scale systematic study to map and characterise HCSS sequences in the DENV proteome.MethodsAll reported DENV protein sequence data for each serotype was retrieved from the NCBI Entrez Protein (nr) Database (txid: 12637). The downloaded sequences were then separated according to the individual serotype proteins by use of BLASTp search, and subsequently removed for duplicates and co-aligned across the serotypes. Shannon’s entropy and mutual information (MI) analyses, by use of AVANA, were performed to measure the diversity within and between the serotype proteins to identify HCSS nonamers. The sequences were evaluated for the presence of promiscuous T-cell epitopes by use of NetCTLpan 1.1 and NetMHCIIpan 3.2 server for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I and class II supertypes, respectively. The predicted epitopes were matched to reported epitopes in the Immune Epitope Database.ResultsA total of 2321 nonamers met the HCSS selection criteria of entropy < 0.25 and MI > 0.8. Concatenating these resulted in a total of 337 HCSS sequences. DENV4 had the most number of HCSS nonamers; NS5, NS3 and E proteins had among the highest, with none in the C and only one in prM. The HCSS sequences were immune-relevant; 87 HCSS sequences were both reported T-cell epitopes/ligands in human and predicted epitopes, supporting the accuracy of the predictions. A number of the HCSS clustered as immunological hotspots and exhibited putative promiscuity beyond a single HLA supertype. The HCSS sequences represented, on average, ~ 40% of the proteome length for each serotype; more than double of pan-DENV sequences (conserved across the four serotypes), and thus offer a larger choice of sequences for vaccine target selection. HCSS sequences of a given serotype showed significant amino acid difference to all the variants of the other serotypes, supporting the notion of serotype-specificity.ConclusionThis work provides a catalogue of HCSS sequences in the DENV proteome, as candidates for vaccine target selection. The methodology described herein provides a framework for similar application to other pathogens.

Optimization of surface flux transport models for the solar polar magnetic field

Context. The choice of free parameters in surface flux transport (SFT) models describing the evolution of the large-scale poloidal magnetic field of the Sun is critical for the correct reproduction of the polar magnetic flux built up during a solar cycle, which is known to be a good predictor of the amplitude of the upcoming cycle. Aims. For an informed choice of parameters it is important to understand the effects of and interplay among the various parameters and to optimize the models for the polar magnetic field. Methods. Here we present the results of a large-scale systematic study of the parameter space in an SFT model where the source term representing the net effect of tilted flux emergence was chosen to represent a typical, average solar cycle as described by observations. Results. Comparing the results with observational constraints on the spatiotemporal variation of the polar magnetic field, as seen in magnetograms for the last four solar cycles, we mark allowed and excluded regions in the 3D parameter space defined by the flow amplitude u0, the magnetic diffusivity η and the decay time scale τ, for three different assumed meridional flow profiles. Conclusions. Without a significant decay term in the SFT equation (i.e., for τ &gt; 10 yr) the global dipole moment reverses too late in the cycle for all flow profiles and parameters, providing independent supporting evidence for the need of a decay term, even in the case of identical cycles. An allowed domain is found to exist for τ values in the 5–10 yr range for all flow profiles considered. Generally higher values of η (500–800 km2 s−1) are preferred though some solutions with lower η are still allowed.

Fear and Loathing in Populist Campaigns? Comparing the Communication Style of Populists and Non-populists in Elections Worldwide

Populists are often described as using a more aggressive, offensive, and anxiety-fuelled rhetoric than non-populists. Yet, little systematic evidence exists that this is the case. This article presents the first large-scale systematic study comparing the communication style of populists and non-populists worldwide, and introduces an original dataset based on expert ratings. The dataset contains systematic information for 195 candidates having competed in 40 national elections worldwide between June 2016 and June 2017. Results highlight that, controlling for “usual suspects” that drive negativity and emotional campaigns, populist campaigns are 15% more negative and contain 11% more character attacks and 8% more fear messages than campaigns of non-populist candidates.

The dose-response analysis between BMI and common chronic diseases in northeast China

High body mass index (BMI) predisposes to several chronic diseases, but a large-scale systematic and detailed study of dose-response relationship between BMI and chronic diseases has not been reported previously. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between BMI and 3 chronic diseases (hypertension, dyslipidemia and MetS) in northeast China. A sample of 16412 participants aged 18~79 years old were included in Jilin province in 2012. The lambda-mu-sigma (LMS) method was applied to examine the trend of BMI by age, and the restricted cubic splines were used to investigate the non-linear associations (dose-response curve) between BMI and chronic diseases. It was pointed out that BMI increased rapidly when young, then kept steady in middle age, and finally declined slowly in old age, and accordingly age was divided into 3 segments, which were different by gender. The odds ratios (ORs) of BMI for the chronic diseases increased relatively slowly when young, then increased dramatically in middle-age and old population, especially for men. Further, the ORs of BMI among non-smokers were lower than those among smokers, and the same trend was shown to be more apparent among drinkers and non-drinkers. The risk of BMI for common chronic diseases increased dramatically in middle-aged, especially for men with drinking and smoking habits.

A Large-Scale Systematic Study of Palaeoeskimo Soapstone Vessel Fragments from Newfoundland and Labrador

The examination of Palaeoeskimo soapstone vessel fragments from the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador provides a better understanding of the use and significance of this technology. While researchers have tacitly accepted the function of soapstone vessels and their use by these populations on the basis of ethnographic analogy, no large-scale systematic study of these vessels has ever been produced to test these assumptions in this region. Results of this study, which are based upon the measurement of more than 3600 soapstone vessel fragments, demonstrate ways in which vessel function may be determined from both morphological characteristics and carbonization patterns. It is also concluded that there are recognizable stylistic differences between vessels used in Labrador and those used on the Island of Newfoundland. The methods employed in this study may be useful in the examination of similar vessels elsewhere in the Arctic.

On-Resonance Fluorescence, Resonance Rayleigh Scattering, and Ratiometric Resonance Synchronous Spectroscopy of Molecular- and Quantum Dot-Fluorophores.

Existing studies on molecular fluorescence have almost exclusively been focused on Stokes-shifted fluorescence spectroscopy (SSF) in which the emitted photon is detected at the wavelengths longer than that for the excitation photons. Information on fluorophore on-resonance fluorescence (ORF) and resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) is limited and often problematic due to the complex interplay of the fluorophore photon absorption, ORF emission, RRS, and solvent Rayleigh scattering. Reported herein is a relatively large-scale systematic study on fluorophore ORF and RRS using the conventional UV-vis extinction and SSF measurements in combination with the recently reported ratiometric resonance synchronous spectroscopic (R2S2, pronounced as "R-Two-S-Two") method. A series of fundamental parameters including fluorophore ORF cross sections and quantum yields have been quantified for the first time for a total of 12 molecular and 6 semiconductor quantum dot (QD) fluorophores. All fluorophore spectra comprise a well-defined Gaussian peak with a full width at half-maximum ranging from 4 to 30 nm. However, the RRS features of fluorophores differ drastically. The effect of fluorophore aggregation on its RRS, UV-vis, R2S2, and SSF spectra was also discussed. This work highlights the critical importance of the combined UV-vis extinction, SSF, and R2S2 spectroscopic measurements for material characterizations. The method and insights described in this work can be directly used for improving the reliability of RRS spectroscopic methods in chemical analysis. In addition, it should pave the way for developing novel R2S2-based analytical applications.

Competitive replacement of invasive congeners may relax impact on native species: interactions among zebra, quagga, and native unionid mussels.

Determining when and where the ecological impacts of invasive species will be most detrimental and whether the effects of multiple invaders will be superadditive, or subadditive, is critical for developing global management priorities to protect native species in advance of future invasions. Over the past century, the decline of freshwater bivalves of the family Unionidae has been greatly accelerated by the invasion of Dreissena. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current infestation rates of unionids by zebra (Dreissena polymorpha) and quagga (D. rostriformis bugensis) mussels in the lower Great Lakes region 25 years after they nearly extirpated native unionids. In 2011–2012, we collected infestation data for over 4000 unionids from 26 species at 198 nearshore sites in lakes Erie, Ontario, and St. Clair, the Detroit River, and inland Michigan lakes and compared those results to studies from the early 1990s. We found that the frequency of unionid infestation by Dreissena recently declined, and the number of dreissenids attached to unionids in the lower Great Lakes has fallen almost ten-fold since the early 1990s. We also found that the rate of infestation depends on the dominant Dreissena species in the lake: zebra mussels infested unionids much more often and in greater numbers. Consequently, the proportion of infested unionids, as well as the number and weight of attached dreissenids were lower in waterbodies dominated by quagga mussels. This is the first large-scale systematic study that revealed how minor differences between two taxonomically and functionally related invaders may have large consequences for native communities they invade.

Systematic and Pairwise Analysis of the Effects of Aromatic Halogenation and Trifluoromethyl Substitution on Human Liver Microsomal Clearance

Fluorine- and chlorine-containing moieties have been strategically integrated into chemical structures to optimize the pharmacokinetic and metabolic properties of therapeutic agents, based partly on the concept that the addition of these substituents may lower microsomal clearance. A large-scale systematic mechanistic study of drug metabolic alteration by aromatic halogenation has hitherto not been possible due to the lack of either large clearance databases or adequate data mining tools. To address this, we systematically searched compound pairs in Pfizer's human liver microsomal clearance database of over 220,000 unique compounds to assess the effects of fluoro-, chloro- and trifluoromethyl-substitution on phenyl derivatives. Although the para-position fluorination and chlorination lowered the microsomal clearance statistically, the substitution at the ortho and meta positions for the studied fluorine- and chlorine-containing moieties dramatically increased the microsomal clearance. More importantly, we found that changes in physicochemical properties, electronic properties, and specific binding of substrates to drug metabolizing enzymes, for instance, cytochrome P450s, are all determining factors that drive the direction of microsomal clearance when a specific series of compounds are studied.

Understanding Those at the Forefront of Globalization

On the Cutting Edge of Globalization: An Inquiry into American Elites. By James N. Rosenau, David C. Earnest, Yale H. Ferguson, Ole R. Holsti Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006. 216 pp., $72.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-7425-3975-X), $32.95 paper (ISBN: 0-7425-3976-8). To understand the sources and future of globalization, it is essential to understand the individuals who are at the forefront of this movement. Yet, considering how vibrant and varied the literature on globalization is, systematic examinations of the people who are on the front lines of it are surprisingly rare. They are often presumed to have certain traits, and some of these presumed characteristics have received a fair amount of scrutiny—as exemplified by Peter Furia's (2005) examination of cosmopolitanism. But a large-scale systematic study of who these individuals are, what they do, and what they believe has heretofore been lacking in the literature. Just such an analysis is the great contribution of On the Cutting Edge of Globalization , by James Rosenau, David Earnest, Yale Ferguson, and Ole Holsti. The book illuminates who these people are. It tells us about their behaviors and their priorities. It shows us how they differ from other elite decision makers and what these characteristics mean for the future of globalization. The centerpiece of the research reported in this book is a massive survey of elites. Rosenau and his colleagues surveyed this population twice, conducting one survey in 1999 and another in 2003. These surveys are used to examine the differences between elites who are at the forefront of globalization (dubbed “Cutting-Edgers”) and those who are not (“Other Leaders”) and to explore variations in the views of the two groups over time. Rosenau and his colleagues adopt a broad view of the types of …

Large-scale Systematic Study on Stability of the Ds Element and Timing of Transposition in Rice

Activator/Dissociation (Ac/Ds) transposon mutagenesis is a widely used tool for gene identification; however, several reports on silencing of the Ac/Ds element in starter lines and in stable transposants question the applicability of such an approach in later generations. We have performed a systematic analysis on various aspects of the silencing phenomenon in rice (Oryza sativa ssp. japonica cv. Nipponbare). High somatic and germinal transposition frequencies observed in earlier generations were maintained as late as T4 and T5 generations; thus the propagation of parental lines did not induce transposon silencing. Moreover, the stably transposed Ds element was active even at the F5 generation, since Ac could remobilize the Ds element as indicated by the footprint analysis of several revertants. Expression of the bar gene was monitored from F3 to F6 generations in >1,000 lines. Strikingly, substantial transgene silencing was not observed in any of the generations tested. We analyzed the timing of transposition during rice development and provide evidence that Ds is transposed late after tiller formation. The possibility, that the independent events could be the result of secondary transposition, was ruled out by analyzing potential footprints by reciprocal PCR. Our study validates the Ac/Ds system as a tool for large-scale mutagenesis in rice, since the Ds elements were active in the starter and insertion lines even in the later generations. We propose that harvesting rice seeds using their panicles is an alternative way to increase the number of independent transposants due to post-tillering transposition.

An electrophoretic tool for the genetic characterisation and delineation of lungworms

In the present study, PCR-based single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) was applied to the genetic characterisation of Dictyocaulus from red deer from New Zealand and to its differentiation from species of lungworm from cattle and other hosts. Based on SSCP profiles, Dictyocaulus individuals from red deer from different geographical localities in New Zealand could be readily distinguished from those representing other lungworms examined, irrespective of low-level sequence variability in the ITS-2 (0.4–2.6%) detectable among individuals. The ITS-2 of Dictyocaulus from red deer differed in sequence by ∼7–35% from congeners from other cervid hosts, demonstrating that this parasite is genetically distinct from other species of Dictyocaulus for which ITS-2 sequence data are presently available. The results emphasize the need for a large-scale molecular systematic study of Dictyocaulus specimens from various species of cervid and other ruminant hosts and the usefulness of mutation scanning for taxonomic, epidemiological and population genetic investigations.

Strategies In Computer Intensive Analysis OfVascular Plant Floristics With Application ToThree US Atlantic Coastal Sites

We implement methods for generating null plant communities in order to have empirical probability distributions (e.g., of Jaccard floristic similarity) against which observed statistics may be compared for tests of significance. We present data for three United States Atlantic coastal sites having a conbined vascular flora of 1298 species. The flora of these sites, located from about 400 to 250 N Latitude, was geographically disjunct. Only 2% of the 1298 species was found at all three sites, 19% was found at two sites, and 79% of species was found only at one of our coastal sites, despite their physiographic similarity. This pattern was similar for the 350 alien species (27%of total species) and the 35 species of non-flowering plants. Jaccard coefficients may be used to measure floristic similarity between pairs of study sites but proper interpretation of these coefficients should be made relative to a null community. Although randon labeling (our method 1) is most commonly used for testing the significance of statistics observed from floristic inventories, it delivers null means and P-values widely contrasting with those generated by equally appealing methods (our methods 2-4). We found little agreement among the four methods for generating null (random) commnities. Whether an observed Jaccard similarity coefficient is smaller than, equalto, or greater than what we would expect for a randomized plant community, depends on the model used to generate the null community. Our study illustrates this expectation. There remains a need for largescale systematic study of computer intensive methods for testing the significance of statistics comparing highly diverse plant communities. Management Information Systems, C.A. Brebbia & P. Pascolo (Editors) © 2000 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISBN 1-85312-815-5 314 Management Information Systems