Unveiling What is Written in The Stars: Analyzing Explicit, Implicit, and Discourse Patterns of Sentiment in Social Media

Deciphering consumers' sentiment expressions from big data (e.g., online reviews) has become a managerial priority to monitor product and service evaluations. However, sentiment analysis, the process of automatically distilling sentiment from text, provides little insight regarding the language granularities beyond the use of positive and negative words. Drawing on speech act theory, this study provides a fine-grained analysis of the implicit and explicit language used by consumers to express sentiment in text. An empirical text-mining study using more than 45,000 consumer reviews demonstrates the differential impacts of activation levels (e.g., tentative language), implicit sentiment expressions (e.g., commissive language), and discourse patterns (e.g., incoherence) on overall consumer sentiment (i.e., star ratings). In two follow-up studies, we demonstrate that these speech act features also influence the readers' behavior and are generalizable to other social media contexts, such as Twitter and Facebook. We contribute to research on consumer sentiment analysis by offering a more nuanced understanding of consumer sentiments and their implications

Current and potential distribution areas for Nothofagus alessandrii, an endangered tree species from central Chile

Nothofagus alessandrii ("ruil") is an endangered species native to the Maule Coastal Forest of central Chile. Previous studies have demonstrated that the current distribution of this species and rates of deforestation and fragmentation present a serious threat to the species. To address this threat, spatial and temporal variation in remnant "ruil" forest cover was analyzed for the period from 1991 to 2008. Using aerial photography and geomatic tools, the state of "ruil" forests cover in 1991 was compared to the "ruil" forests cover in 2008 and with this information, the potential distribution area of this species was calculated. The results demonstrate that the current area of "ruil" forest is approximately 314 ha, with a net loss of 42 ha (12% of the forested area) over the 17-year study period. The annual deforestation rate for "ruil" during this period was 0.74%, a value that is significantly lower than that reported just two decades ago. Taken together with the fact that the majority of "ruil" forests belong to large private companies, with an additional 15% protected by the Chilean government, the conservation status of "ruil" forest has become less critical, at least in the short term. In addition, the habitat model from this study showed that there is a large area of 9,841 ha within which "ruil" forests could be greatly expanded through active forest restoration

Cutting through Content Clutter: How Speech and Image Acts Drive Consumer Sharing of Social Media Brand Messages

Consumer-to-consumer brand message sharing is pivotal for effective social media marketing. Even as companies join social media conversations and generate millions of brand messages, it remains unclear what, how, and when brand messages stand out and prompt sharing by consumers. With a conceptual extension of speech act theory, this study offers a granular assessment of brands’ message intentions (i.e., assertive, expressive, or directive) and the effects on consumer sharing. A text mining study of more than two years of Facebook posts and Twitter tweets by well-known consumer brands empirically demonstrates the impacts of distinct message intentions on consumers’ message sharing. Specifically, the use of rhetorical styles (alliteration and repetitions) and cross-message compositions enhance consumer message sharing. As a further extension, an image-based study demonstrates that the presence of visuals, or so-called image acts, increases the ability to account for message sharing. The findings explicate brand message sharing by consumers and thus offer guidance to content managers for developing more effective conversational strategies in social media marketing

Survey of ortho-H2D+in high-mass star-forming regions

Context. Deuteration has been suggested to be a reliable chemical clock of star-forming regions due to its strong dependence on density and temperature changes during cloud contraction. In particular, the H3+ isotopologues (e.g. ortho-H2D+) seem to act as good proxies of the evolutionary stages of the star formation process. While this has been widely explored in low-mass star-forming regions, in the high-mass counterparts only a few studies have been pursued, and the reliability of deuteration as a chemical clock remains inconclusive. Aims. We present a large sample of o-H2D+ observations in high-mass star-forming regions and discuss possible empirical correlations with relevant physical quantities to assess its role as a chronometer of star-forming regions through different evolutionary stages. Methods. APEX observations of the ground-state transition of o-H2D+ were analysed in a large sample of high-mass clumps selected from the ATLASGAL survey at different evolutionary stages. Column densities and beam-Averaged abundances of o-H2D+ with respect to H2, X(o-H2D+), were obtained by modelling the spectra under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium. Results. We detect 16 sources in o-H2D+ and find clear correlations between X(o-H2D+) and the clump bolometric luminosity and the dust temperature, while only a mild correlation is found with the CO-depletion factor. In addition, we see a clear correlation with the luminosity-To-mass ratio, which is known to trace the evolution of the star formation process. This would indicate that the deuterated forms of H3+ are more abundant in the very early stages of the star formation process and that deuteration is influenced by the time evolution of the clumps. In this respect, our findings would suggest that the X(o-H2D+) abundance is mainly affected by the thermal changes rather than density changes in the gas. We have employed these findings together with observations of H13CO+, DCO+, and C17O to provide an estimate of the cosmic-ray ionisation rate in a sub-sample of eight clumps based on recent analytical work. Conclusions. Our study presents the largest sample of o-H2D+ in star-forming regions to date. The results confirm that the deuteration process is strongly affected by temperature and suggests that o-H2D+ can be considered a reliable chemical clock during the star formation processes, as proved by its strong temporal dependence

Adventitial alterations are the main features in pulmonary artery remodeling due to long-term chronic intermittent hypobaric hypoxia in rats

Long-termchronic intermittent exposure to altitude hypoxia is a labor phenomenon requiring further research. Using a rat model, we examined whether this type of exposure differed from chronic exposure in terms of pulmonary artery remodeling and other features. Rats were subjected to chronic hypoxia (CH, = 9) and long-term intermittent hypoxia (CIH2x2; 2 days of hypoxia/2 days of normoxia, = 10) in a chamber (428 Torr, 4,600m of altitude) for 46 days and compared to rats under normoxia (NX, = 10). Body weight, hematocrit, and right ventricle ratio were measured. Pulmonary artery remodeling was assessed using confocal microscopy of tissues stained with a nuclear dye (DAPI) and CD11b antibody. Both hypoxic conditions exhibited increased hematocrit and hypertrophy of the right ventricle, tunica adventitia, and tunica media, with no changes in lumen size. The medial hypertrophy area (larger in CH) depicted a significant increase in smooth muscle cell number. Additionally, CIH2x2 increased the adventitial hypertrophy area, with an increased cellularity and a larger prevalence of clustered inflammatory cells. In conclusion, CIH2x2 elicitsmilder effects on pulmonary artery medial layermuscularization and subsequent right ventricular hypertrophy than CH. However, CIH2x2 induces greater and characteristic alterations of the adventitial layerThis work was funded by GORE-FNDR-BIP: 30125349-0, AECID Nº A/030023/10, and CYTED-ALTMEDFIS grant

Period Change Rates of Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids using MESA

Pulsating stars, such as Cepheids and RR Lyrae, offer us a window to measure and study changes due to stellar evolution. In this work, we study the former by calculating a set of evolutionary tracks of stars with an initial mass of 4 to 7 $M_\odot$, varying the initial rotation rate and metallicity, using the stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). Using Radial Stellar Pulsations (RSP), a recently added functionality of MESA, we obtained theoretical instability strip (IS) edges and linear periods for the radial fundamental mode. Period-age, period-age-temperature, period-luminosity, and period-luminosity-temperature relationships were derived for three rotation rates and metallicities, showing a dependence on crossing number, position in the IS, rotation, and metallicity. We calculated period change rates (PCRs) based on the linear periods from RSP. We compared our models with literature results using the Geneva code, and found large differences, as expected due to the different implementations of rotation between codes. In addition, we compared our theoretical PCRs with those measured in our recent work for Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids. We found good overall agreement, even though our models do not reach the short-period regime exhibited by the empirical data. Implementations of physical processes not yet included in our models, such as pulsation-driven mass loss, an improved treatment of convection that may lead to a better description of the instability strip edges, as well as consideration of a wider initial mass range, could all help improve the agreement with the observed PCRs.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures. Accepted by MNRA

739 observed NEAs and new 2-4m survey statistics within the EURONEAR network

We report follow-up observations of 477 program Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) using nine telescopes of the EURONEAR network having apertures between 0.3 and 4.2 m. Adding these NEAs to our previous results we now count 739 program NEAs followed-up by the EURONEAR network since 2006. The targets were selected using EURONEAR planning tools focusing on high priority objects. Analyzing the resulting orbital improvements suggests astrometric follow-up is most important days to weeks after discovery, with recovery at a new opposition also valuable. Additionally we observed 40 survey fields spanning three nights covering 11 sq. degrees near opposition, using the Wide Field Camera on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), resulting in 104 discovered main belt asteroids (MBAs) and another 626 unknown one-night objects. These fields, plus program NEA fields from the INT and from the wide field MOSAIC II camera on the Blanco 4m telescope, generated around 12,000 observations of 2,000 minor planets (mostly MBAs) observed in 34 square degrees. We identify Near Earth Object (NEO) candidates among the unknown (single night) objects using three selection criteria. Testing these criteria on the (known) program NEAs shows the best selection methods are our epsilon-miu model which checks solar elongation and sky motion and the MPC's NEO rating tool. Our new data show that on average 0.5 NEO candidates per square degree should be observable in a 2m-class survey (in agreement with past results), while an average of 2.7 NEO candidates per square degree should be observable in a 4m-class survey (although our Blanco statistics were affected by clouds). At opposition just over 100 MBAs (1.6 unknown to every 1 known) per square degree are detectable to R=22 in a 2m survey based on the INT data, while our two best ecliptic Blanco fields away from opposition lead to 135 MBAs (2 unknown to every 1 known) to R=23.Comment: Published in Planetary and Space Sciences (Sep 2013

The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey. I – VIMOS spectroscopy of compact stellar systems in the Fornax core region

We present the results of a wide spectroscopic survey aimed at detecting extragalactic globular clusters (GCs) in the core of the Fornax cluster. About 4500 low resolution spectra (from 4800 to 10000 Å) were observed in 25 VLT/VIMOS masks covering the central 1 deg2 around the dominant galaxy NGC 1399 corresponding to ∼175 kpc galactocentric radius. We describe the methodology used for data reduction and data analysis. We found a total of 387 unique physical objects (372 GCs and 15 ultra compact dwarfs) in the field covered by our observations. Most of these objects lie in the region of NGC1399 halo, with only 10% likely belonging to other giant galaxies 48 of these objects have a literature counterpart. The new VIMOS dataset is complementary to the many GC catalogues already present in the literature and it brings the total number of tracer particles around NGC 1399 to more than 1130 objects. With this comprehensive radial velocity sample we have found that the velocity dispersion of the GC population (equally for red and blue GC populations) shows a relatively sharp increase from low velocity dispersion (∼250 − 350 km s$−1$) to high velocity dispersion (∼300 − 400 km s$−1$) at projected radius of ≈10 arcmin (∼60 kpc) from the galaxy centre. This suggests that at a projected radius of ≈60 kpc both blue and red GC populations begin to be governed by the dominating Fornax cluster potential, rather than by the central NGC 1399 galaxy potential. This kinematic evidence corroborates similar results found using surface brightness analysis and planetary nebulae kinematics

Long-Term Chronic Intermittent Hypobaric Hypoxia Induces Glucose Transporter (GLUT4) Translocation Through AMP-Activated Protein Kinase (AMPK) in the Soleus Muscle in Lean Rats

Background: In chronic hypoxia (CH) and short-term chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) exposure, glycemia and insulin levels decrease and insulin sensitivity increases, which can be explained by changes in glucose transport at skeletal muscles involving GLUT1, GLUT4, Akt, and AMPK, as well as GLUT4 translocation to cell membranes. However, during long-term CIH, there is no information regarding whether these changes occur similarly or differently than in other types of hypoxia exposure. This study evaluated the levels of AMPK and Akt and the location of GLUT4 in the soleus muscles of lean rats exposed to long-term CIH, CH, and normoxia (NX) and compared the findings.Methods: Thirty male adult rats were randomly assigned to three groups: a NX (760 Torr) group (n = 10), a CIH group (2 days hypoxia/2 days NX; n = 10) and a CH group (n = 10). Rats were exposed to hypoxia for 30 days in a hypobaric chamber set at 428 Torr (4,600 m). Feeding (10 g daily) and fasting times were accurately controlled. Measurements included food intake (every 4 days), weight, hematocrit, hemoglobin, glycemia, serum insulin (by ELISA), and insulin sensitivity at days 0 and 30. GLUT1, GLUT4, AMPK levels and Akt activation in rat soleus muscles were determined by western blot. GLUT4 translocation was measured with confocal microscopy at day 30.Results: (1) Weight loss and increases in hematocrit and hemoglobin were found in both hypoxic groups (p < 0.05). (2) A moderate decrease in glycemia and plasma insulin was found. (3) Insulin sensitivity was greater in the CIH group (p < 0.05). (4) There were no changes in GLUT1, GLUT4 levels or in Akt activation. (5) The level of activated AMPK was increased only in the CIH group (p < 0.05). (6) Increased GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane of soleus muscle cells was observed in the CIH group (p < 0.05).Conclusion: In lean rats experiencing long-term CIH, glycemia and insulin levels decrease and insulin sensitivity increases. Interestingly, there is no increase of GLUT1 or GLUT4 levels or in Akt activation. Therefore, cellular regulation of glucose seems to primarily involve GLUT4 translocation to the cell membrane in response to hypoxia-mediated AMPK activation